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BT 21CN Upgrade

Glovepup

ULTIMATE Member
My exchange is to finally be upgraded, ETA is the end of March. What is the likely hood of BT meeting this date? Just curious as I'm currently getting about 1.5mb as I'm quite a distance from the exchange. I'd be happy just to get over 2mb hopefully though I will end up with a bit more.
 
21CN upgrades (which are exchange only updates) normally get done on time. If you then start looking into FTTC and a date for the cabinet in your street though you can pretty much ignore those dates.
6 dates were given for my street cabinet last year, it still isnt done. My exchange and its 21CN and Fibre capable updates were done on time though....... All the way back end of 2010 no fibre in many areas still though :(
 
I wouldn't expect too much extra speed if you only get 1.5Mbps today. Maybe, if you're lucky, it will push you up to just under 2Mbps but generally the ADSL2+ upgrade usually only benefits those with shorter lines and people with sub-2Mbps performance see only a minimal difference.
 
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I wouldn't expect too much extra speed if you only get 1.5Mbps today. Maybe, if you're lucky, it will push you up to just under 2Mbps but generally the ADSL2+ upgrade usually only benefits those with shorter lines and people with sub-2Mbps performance see only a minimal difference.

Yes I was thinking the same, I can live with my current speed but when BT say I could possibly get 3.5mb I start to salivate at that prospect! We shall see I suppose.
 
truth4free, I contacted BT Openreach, however they replied with a copy and paste reply stating that it was my Communications Provider (CP) responsibility (which is BT), and that they do not manage exchange upgrades.

So, I'm left a little confused, because I've contacted BT Broadband, Wholesale, pretty much everyone else, who have all told me that it is BT Openreach's responsibility and to contact them, yet when I do, they deny it
 
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I think what's happened there Alchemy is a confusion of responsibility that we often see. BTOpenreach do handle the vast majority of exchange work but as an end-user they won't interact with you directly. So I think what they're saying is, talk to your ISP and not BTO if you want a reply. Your ISP will take something up with BTOpenreach directly if required.
 
Mark.J, which is what I did initially, my ISP being BT Broadband, however they referred all queries be directed to BT Openreach.

In a nutshell, what I am trying to establish is, every month BT Wholesale release a list of exchange upgrades and dates, however, there are a number of villages around me, with far fewer subscribers, both residential and business, which have been given an upgrade date to 21CN, yet the village I'm in hasn't, and has always traditionally been upgraded first before the others. I'm just trying to find out the reason behind it. Is it an error, or are BT employing chinese math?
 
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Save yourself the time and hassle forget about asking and just keep checking.

My cabinet for FTTC last year had several dates, all of which have came and gone, currently BTs infinity site and checker also says my cabinet will be done in March, im not much of a gambling man but come the end of March i can pretty much guarantee it wont be done.

The same happened when my exchange was due for its 21CN upgrades half a dozen dates or so went by before it was finally upgraded. It sounds like the same thing have happened to you and is likely to happen with further "upgrades"

Contacting BT will just result in them referring you to another BT organisation or tell you to ask your ISP. Its a waste of time asking them for any advice on the matter.

Probably best you just keep checking the BT checker and hope its done sooner rather than later.

The people though who are ultimately responsible and do most exchange, cabinet and phone line work are indeed Openreach, they wont tell you anything though.
 
As above, I think if you're hoping to get a reply out of BTOpenreach directly then I'd just give up :) . Even we technology journo's can only get so much detail out of them and that's usually pretty vague. It's also a bit poor of BT Retail to say "ask BTOpenreach" when they know full well that BTO won't engage with consumers.
 
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No accountability as usual.

Is there a system in place at BT to take your enquiries/complaints further up the corporate chain? In South Africa for instance, one could eventually take the matter up with the CEO's office
 
Again i wouldn't waste your time, any complaint from anyone just moaning their exchange has not been upgraded is going to be filled the same place last weeks newspaper is. No organisation to be fair (much as i hate to defend BT over anything) are going to bother going into depth over a complaint like that. You could write to ofcom and voice your outrage though i suspect that will be filed in the same place.
 
I'm not sure if that's entirely fair, ISPs like Zen Internet and AAISP will usually pursue such questions with BT at greater length than most. Although that doesn't mean to say the situation itself will change or improve, just that you're more likely to get an answer with some ISPs.

BT Retail does have different levels of support and there's no harm in asking for the question to be taken up with a member of management, but I still fear that you won't get very far.
 
Now on ADSL 2+, beforehand I was getting about 1.3/1.4mb throughput now getting 2mb. So an extra 1/2 meg, better than nothing and no increase in price.
 
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